The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for selectively transmitting data relating to a geographical region to a receiver in a non-railbound vehicle.
In modern vehicles, in particular non-railbound land vehicles, data are being increasingly processed by external sensors and databases. In this context, the term “external” in connection with sensors and databases relates to those sensors and databases which are not permanently connected to the vehicle or are only temporarily in the latter. Accordingly, these data are referred to as external data below.
The external data are provided by external data sources, for example by other vehicles or by stationary databases. If the external data are provided by other vehicles, the term “car-to-car” or “car-2-car” or variations thereof is frequently used. If external data are provided by stationary databases, the term “car-to-infrastructure” or “car-2-infrastructure” or variations thereof is often used. A stationary database in the context of this description also comprises a combination of a plurality of databases at different locations which is combined to form a single virtual database. The combination can also be dynamically variable, for example on the basis of a changing data volume. In addition, a database in the context of this description can also carry out and provide data-processing functions, for example data analysis, filter functions and the like. The terms “cloud” and “cloud computing” are often used as representative of such databases.
External data transmitted to vehicles may contain information relating to the current traffic on roads in the area surrounding the vehicle or on a planned route or information relating to attractions or other points of interest in the area surrounding the vehicle or along a planned route. It is also possible to transmit general status and state information relating to the traffic route network of a region.
Such data can be transmitted as a broadcast via a broadcasting network, for example, and can be received by every suitable receiving unit. If data are transmitted to a multiplicity of vehicles distributed over a large geographical region, the proportion of data in the total volume of received data that are relevant to a respective vehicle falls. Nevertheless, all data must be initially received and possibly stored.
A necessary process for individually selecting the data relevant to a respective vehicle may require considerable resources during storage and filtering. In addition, the data rate of the transmission must increase with an increasing volume of data if a particular update period is intended to be complied with. In this case, update periods which are as short as possible are desirable from the point of view of the users and can decide on success or failure of a data service.
It may therefore be useful to selectively transmit data relevant to individual vehicles by means of targeted transmissions. This makes it possible to keep the volume of data to be transmitted for each vehicle small. Data which are relevant only to a particular geographical region, for example hazard alerts on a particular road, can therefore be transmitted only to those vehicles which are or will be en route in the relevant region or on the affected road.
Transmission can be carried out, for example, using one of the known mobile radio standards, for example using the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), using the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) or using the Long Term Evolution System (LTE). Other wireless communication standards, for example IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.15.4 or the like, which cover a smaller spatial region than the abovementioned standards can also be used depending on local conditions and the installed infrastructure. For this purpose, it may be necessary to statically connect the individual transmitters to form a larger network or to use a dynamic mesh network structure.
One example of providing data relating to the traffic situation in a particular spatial region is known in connection with the Microsoft™ map application “Bing Maps”. The map application “Bing Maps” has a programming interface (Application Programming Interface, API) which can be used to retrieve traffic data relating to a route (Route API) or for a particular geographical area (Traffic API). A vehicle which has a computer connected to the Internet, for example a navigation unit, can individually retrieve and process the required traffic information by means of suitable software.
When individually transmitting such data, the respective vehicle or the respective receiver must be uniquely identifiable and must specify its geographical position more or less accurately. It is therefore possible to create a movement profile of the receiver, which can result in a considerable restriction of privacy in the event of linking to other data which can be assigned to the receiver.
An object of the present invention is therefore to specify a method and an apparatus for selectively transmitting data to a receiver in a vehicle, which method ensures improved safeguarding of privacy in comparison with existing solutions.